Looking For A Better World
by tomfeltonlover1991
Summary: Maya's family has shattered, her mom died, her sister left for college and her dad crumbles more and more everyday. When things look their worst she meets Harry, the new boy. Is he really the prince charming he seems to be? Will she make it through with the help of her friends? A/U story. Maya/Owen.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own Degrassi.

Author Note: A new story has popped up. This is AU after the last episode. A big thank you to Halawen for your help in Beta and Co-Writing. Hope you like it and let me know what you think if it.

Maya's POV

…"Mom the ambulance is on its way just hang on please!" I plead with my mother as she struggles to breathe, the MS she was diagnosed with over fifteen years ago finally claiming her body. "Katie she's not breathing!" I cry to my sister on the phone with 911.

"Move over Maya," Katie commands pushing me out of the way to do rescue breathing on our mother.

"Where's Dad? Where's the ambulance?" I shriek out of fear and frustration.

The room fades and suddenly we're in the hospital waiting room, huddled together as we wait for news and then the doctor comes out with a mostly blank face but sorrow in his eyes.

"I'm sorry Mr. Matlin there is nothing we can do, her body has succumb to the MS. We're keeping her on life support but she'll never recover it's time. You should go in and say your goodbyes." The doctor says and I go numb.

"NO!" I scream at the top of my lungs and sink to the floor. "No she can't die! You can't let her d…

BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP

The sudden and very loud beeping of my alarm jolts me awake and I sit up panting and crying.

"Just a nightmare, just another nightmare." I assure myself.

Of course it was another nightmare; my mom had been dead since May. I'd been dreaming about that night, reliving it over and over nearly every night since. Mom had dies two weeks before Katie's graduation, Katie had planned to stay in Toronto and not leave for UCSC until August but after Mom died she couldn't wait to get out of here. She left the day after she graduated, got in her car and drove to California. She ran away from everything, the pain, the memories, her boyfriend, Dad and even me. It was September now, the first day of school of my sophomore year and in all the time she'd been gone she'd called exactly three times; when she made it to California, on father's day and my birthday.

Katie was gone, Dad escaped it all by working all the time, he was rarely home now and when he was it was usually worse than having him gone. When Mom died so did Dad in a way, he wasn't the same, he had fallen into a depression, he hated life now and sometimes, a lot of the time I was sure he hated me. I barely talked to Tori anymore, after my mom dies she avoided me like the plague and when she did stoop to being in my presence she was, to put it bluntly, a real bitch! Zig had to work all summer so I barely saw him.

Only two people got me through the summer, helped me through my mom's death, the Milligan brothers Tristan and Owen. I had spent most of the summer with them hanging out at their house or if I was really sad they'd take me out and distract me. Honestly if not for Tris and Owen I would have fallen into depression just like my dad or possibly run away like Katie. Owen left a couple of weeks ago to go to University, he'd given me his cell number and told me to call if I ever needed to talk. I never did of course I didn't want to be a bother but I felt better just knowing he cared, it was nice to know someone still did.

"Maya get up you need to get ready for school," Dad called while knocking on my door.

"I'm up Dad," I called back getting up with a sigh, I really had no desire to go to school. "At least I'll get to see Tris today, not that I didn't see him yesterday. I'll get to see Zig, haven't seen him in weeks." I encouraged myself as I left the warmth of my bed to pick out something to wear to school. Making sure the clothing I choose hid some of the bruises that I have on my arms and parts of my body. See no one really knows that even though my dad throw himself into work he went to the bars after work and drank until he was well past the drunk part and took his anger out on me. No one's seen him drunk except for Owen once when he dropped me off, he just didn't know that I got hit that night.

After making sure the bruises where not showing I went into the bathroom and brushed my hair, and brushed my teeth and added on some eye liner and mascara and headed back into my room and grabbed my backpack and cell but not turning it on, and headed downstairs and went to go get some cereal for breakfast since dad never really cooks anymore. The only time I had a good breakfast is if I stayed the night had the Milligan's and there mom made it or Owen when their parents already left.

"Maya I won't be home so you're on your own for dinner." My Dad told me as I poured me a bowl of cereal as Dad just sat there reading the paper not bothering to look up at me.

"Of course you won't you'll be at the bar with your new friends getting drunk as a skunk." I thought to myself as I took a spoonful of my cereal before answering him "Ok Dad no problem." And that began the silence of no more talking from him like usual.

After finishing my breakfast I put the bowl and the sink and trying heading towards the door so I could leave early not noticing Dad stood up also and had a glare in his eye.

"What do you think you're doing?" Dad said suddenly like he's angry as he grabbed my wrist and spun me around.

"I'm… heading…. to school…" I stuttered scared at the sudden outburst.

"You didn't finish cleaning your bowl and put it in the dishwasher." Dad said yelling and gripping my wrist harder.

"Ok!" I said causing dad to let go of me and I rushed and cleaned my bowl out and put it in the dishwasher then rushed back out and grabbed my things and ran out the door before Dad did something else.

Tris and I decided to meet up early so we could see what classes we had and talk even though we seen each other just yesterday. Tris hadn't really talked to Tori either since she had become a bitch to him to thinking she's better than the rest of us. We have known idea why she changed so much. But the few times she showed up at Tris' house Tris either had his parents or Owen send her away.

On my way to school since it was just a five minute walk I noticed that my right wrist that dad grabbed was already bruising and I hope nobody notices it, if they do I'll just say I tripped and try an catch myself. As I reached the school I was almost to the steps when I heard my name being called and I turned towards the voice calling me and I see Tris and Zig sitting over at a picnic table and I headed in their direction.

"Hey guys." I said enthusiastically happy to see them even though I saw Tris yesterday.

"Hey Maya!" They both said in unison before Tris continued talking "I got your schedule already where in almost all the same classes except for Social Studies but you got Zig in that."

"Oh thanks." I said grabbing my schedule from him not noticing they could see the mark Dad left on me.

"Maya what happened to your wrist?" Zig asked concerned look on his and Tris faces.

"Oh last night I tripped on the stairs since it was dark and tried catching myself." I lied to them.

"You sure that looks like a hand print." Tris said almost figuring it out.

"Yes am sure. I'm ok let's head in to school." I said trying to find a distraction as the bell rang.

As we began walking into the school I was knocking into by my side by someone as I walked through the door causing the both of us to drop our stuff.

"I'm so sorry I didn't see you." I heard a guy's voice as I bent down to grab my bag.

"It's ok." I said looking up and seeing a brown eyed guy smiling down at me.

"I'm still sorry. My names' Harry." The guy said introducing himself.

"I'm Maya and this is Tris and Zig." I said to him while waving to the other two who said hello.

"Nice to meet you. Maybe I'll see you around." Harry said before leaving us to ourselves as I stared off at him while mumbling "Defiantly."

"Maya let's go." Tris said as we split off from Zig and headed off to Math.

"Ok." I said following him.

As we reached our class we saw that Tori was in it to but we dodged her and grabbed seats in the back next to each other as Tris turned to look at me.

"Hey Maya is something wrong with your phone." Tris asked me making me realize that I haven't turned it on since it died at Tris yesterday afternoon and plugged it in but never turned it on.

"No I never turned it back on after I plugged it in to charge it. Why?" I asked curiously.

"Owen called me worried that you didn't answer yesterday and that he hadn't heard from you since last week." Tris explains to me on Owen trying to call me.

"I didn't mean to make him worry. I'll call him during lunch. Just text him to let him know." I whispered lowly to him as the teacher came in as Tris texted his brother quickly then turned our attention to the teacher.

After getting through first hour with no hassle Tris and I went to our lockers and switched books and agreed to meet up after 2nd since I had Social Studies with Zig and he had Science.

"I'll meet you here after class." Tris told me as we split off and I saw Zig making his way towards me.

"Hey!" I said as we continued walking to Social Studies which turned out to be a combined of grades class.

"What's up how was Math?" Zig asked as we made it to the classroom.

"It was fine, Tori in that class but she didn't say anything to us." I told him as we found seats next to Becky and Luke Baker who through summer actually became friends a bit since Luke hangout with Owen some while we were over to.

"Hey Maya, Zig! Happy to be back at school and be sophomores." Becky started rambling on causing Zig and I just to stare at how someone could be that hyper.

"Becky chill out!" Luke told his sister getting her to quiet down.

"Dude that was a lot of words. How do you ever understand her?" Zig finally spoke up asking Luke.

"It goes in one ear out the other. Hey Maya." Luke explained to Zig which caused Becky to smack him in the arm for saying that.

"Hey guys. Yeah I'm actually am happy to be back to school." I said speaking up and telling the truth that I'm happy to be back and away from my Dad.

"Yeah and only 2 more years of this crap." Zig said sarcastically causing the rest of us to laugh at him as the teacher walked in and began class.

It was actually a pretty easy class for the first day and the teacher is pretty awesome so after the bell rang Zig and I bid Luke and Becky goodbye and made our way to the east side where the tenth graders lockers were. When we reached to where our lockers were we seen that Tris was at his locker already, but I could see that he was arguing with someone, someone by the name Tori Santamaria. Oh joy.

"Hey Tris how was Science?" I asked him knocking him out of his argument as I opened up my locker to switch books.

"So great. I found out she is in it and now she won't go away." Tris said sarcastically pointing towards Tori.

"Were friends Tris. Why are you being mean?" Tori asked causing us all to look at her like she was stupid.

"Maybe because you turned into a real bitch and ditched us all especially Maya after her Mom died." Zig went off on her defending us.

"Oh please. She's just looking for attention." Tori said as if anything Zig said meant nothing.

"Attention! Who the hell are you to say she wanted attention that is all you. Her sister up and left and her dad works all the time she had hardly anyone but Zig, Owen and I." Tris said yelling at Tori.

"This is all your fault!" Tori suddenly said turning towards me with a glare in her eye.

"How's this my fault!" I yelled back causing the whole hallway to turn and look at us.

"You turned Tris and Zig against me and always had Owen and their parents turn me away when I came over!" Tori yelled back at me which that had Tris go off on her.

"I'm the one to tell my family to turn you away. Our friendship is over Tori the minute you became a bitch!" Tris said livid along with Zig.

"Let's just go to class guys." Zig said knowing we wanted to get away from her.

As we started walking away from Tori I was shoved from behind and I dropped all my books.

"What the hell Tori!" I asked again getting pissed at her for acting like the way she was.

"You are ruining everything." Tori said before throwing a punch directed at my face, causing me to defend myself by throwing a punch at her right eye and hitting the target, good thing before Owen left he taught Tris, Zig and myself ways to throw a punch and to defend ourselves.

As the fight escalated with punches and pulling of hairs where going on more and more people were grouping around, including some of the Seniors I knew Luke, Becky, Adam, while Tris and Zig tried to stop it. But it didn't get stopped until Mr. Simpson showed up.

"Hey break it up!" Mr. Simpson said getting in the middle of us. By the looks of it I got Tori really good since her eye was already bruising and there were some scratches on her arms. Me by the looks of it only had pulled hair and scratches on my arms.

"Both of you Principals office NOW. The rest of you get to third period" He told Tori and I and he followed him giving side glares to each other as the other kids wondered to class.

"Now will one of you tell me what caused the fight to happen?" Mr. Simpson asked as he closed his office door as the two of us sat down.

"She started it. I was just trying to go to class." I explained to him starting it and causing Tori to but in "Not true you can ask anyone." She was so lying.

"Alright I will. I did see some who wouldn't lie to me." Mr. Simpson told us as he pushed the intercom button and talked "Will the following students come to the office please… Luke Baker…. Tristan Milligan…. Zig Novak and Adam Torres…. Thank You. Now while we wait for me to talk to them you two go and sit in the chairs out there." He told us opening the door and walking us out.

Not bothering to say anything I sat a few chairs away and waited to see what will happen. While waiting for me to get called back in I saw Luke and Adam walking up and they both smiled at me as they headed in and with Tris and Zig coming to and they followed the others in.

It was about 15 minutes before we were called back in and the others walked out and headed back to class except Tris who had a free period and waited for me since third period was my free period too.

"Now I talked to everyone and they all said the same thing Tori you started it and caused it to escalate." Mr. Simpson started to tell us what our punishment would be.

"No I didn't!" Tori tried lying and saying again causing Mr. S to get annoyed.

"Now Maya you have detention just for today since you did continue the fight, and Tori three days for you, and your parents will be called. Now head out to your class and no more fights." Mr. Simpson shooed us out after giving out our detentions and which I hope I get home to delete the message before Dad got home.

"Well?" Tris asked standing and looking at me as we made our way out and Tori stomped down the hall.

"I have detention after school and Tori has detention for three days." I told him as we made our way to the lunch room since it was already time to eat.

"Well this will make for some juicy gossip for Owen when you call him." Tris said causing me to laugh for the first time since before the fight happened.

Since it was a nice day out we decide to eat outside after we got our lunches. We meet up with Zig which I told him what happened and headed towards the doors and went to the picnic table and began eating. Where were talking when I heard my phone go off.

"Oh crap I forgot I told him I call before lunch." I spoke to Tris and Zig when I saw Owen's name pop up on the screen.

"Who is it?" Zig asked as I clicked the talk button.

"Owen hey." I talked into the phone answering Zig.

"Hey! All you have to say is hey. You had me worried when you never answered my calls yesterday." Owen sprouted off worried about me.

"Sorry my phone died and I forgot to turn it back on after it was charged that's all. I really didn't mean to worry you." I apologize.

"Fine just don't worry me like that again," Owen reprimands.

"I won't I'll make sure my phone is always on and charged from now on I promise." I tell him.

"Good, so how's the first day going?" Owen asks.

"Okay except for getting in a fight with Tori, she started it but I still got detention today after school." I tell him.

"Tori's a bitch pretend she doesn't exist it'll drive her crazy." Owen advises.

"We all plan on her not existing to us." I told him on agreeing.

"Good. How's Tris doing? Is anyone else besides Tori bothering you guys?" Owen asked as I took a bite of my food and chewed it quickly so I could answer.

"Tris is good he says hey. No but I was knocked into when I came into the school, but he apologized." I told him leaving out the guy's name since Owen's became protective of me since summer.

"He better have apologized! Tell Tris and Zig since I know he's there I said hey." Owen told me as I told what he said to Tris and Zig.

"He did apologize he was very sweet about it." I told him finishing my lunch off.

We talked for a few minutes before the bell rang signaling lunch was over and I told Owen that I had to go but I will keep my phone on from now on and always answer his calls before hanging up and getting ready to head to my next class.

Zig, Tris and I all had different classes to go to for this period. I had Science, Tris had Social Studies and Zig had Gym so we split up at our lockers and headed towards our different destinations.

When I made it to the class room I looked around to see if I knew anyone and I saw the cute guy Harry that I ran into this morning but before I could go over there the teacher was already here and talking so I grabbed a seat in the front. The teacher seemed pretty cool and was nice and all that but I really couldn't pay attention a whole lot until I heard my name get called.

"Maya Matlin you are paired with Harry Davis." I heard her tell me as kids where moving around and I heard someone plop down next to me.

"We meet again." Harry says to me making me laugh at his corniness.

"Yes we do. So what are we supposed to do I wasn't listening." I asked him quietly so the teacher wouldn't hear.

"Aww not listening to the teacher bad girl. Where supposed to read and discuss the first part of the packet that she handed out to us at the beginning." Harry said sarcastically then holding up the packets we got.

As we read through some of the things the conversation to turned towards what happened this morning.

"Hey so I'm sorry again about knocking into you." He said throwing me a smile.

"Its ok it was an accident." I told him sweetly since it was an accident.

"Let me make it up to you. How about we hangout after school?" Harry asked me pulling this charming smile on his face.

"I can't I have detention after school." I told him sadly.

"I'll wait for you then we could go grab a bite to eat at the Dot. My treat." Harry offered.

"Ok." I told him excited to hang with him.

With that it ended our conversation and we went back to our assignments until class was over. When the bell rang singling class was over I walked out and noticed Harry following behind me until he was next to me and said he would walk me to my locker.

When we reached my locker Tris and Zig where already there waiting for me to head to our next class.

"Hey guys you remember Harry." I said to them as I opened my locker to get my stuff.

As the guys said hey in all that I decided to tell them about hanging with Harry after I got out of detention.

"Hey guys Harry invited me to hangout after school so you don't have to wait for me." I told them causing me to look at me weird.

"What?" I asked as I saw them look at me.

"Maya you hardly know him and you're just going to go with him." Tris said protectively.

"Yeah we're just going to hang. It's not like it's a date." I told him before continuing on "You're starting to sound like Owen."

"That's cause we are protective of you and want you safe." Zig said continuing on from Tris and giving Harry dirty looks.

"Guys!" I said irritated before I was cut off from talking from someone.

"It's fine Maya. Why don't you guys come with us? Were just going to go get some food at the dot." Harry told them inviting them along even though I wanted to get to know him and just be the two of us.

"Ok!" the other two said quickly before I could say anything then the bell rang and they dragged me away before I could say even goodbye to Harry.

The rest of the afternoon went by pretty quickly, I only had one more class with Tori and Zig and Tris were both in my last two classes of the day. But when the day was over I knew it was time for detention and I had it with Tori. I got there before she did and chose a desk at the back, getting out my homework so I could start on it since I figured it was probably what they'd have me do anyway. Tori came in a few minutes later sitting at a desk in the front and glaring at me. To my surprise Harry came in a right after Tori, she looks at him and smiles but he ignores her and looks at me sitting down next to me.

"What are you doing here?" I ask him.

"I heard through the grapevine about your detention and thought I'd keep you company." Harry tells me.

I smile at him as Mr. Perino comes in and tells us we get sit silently for an hour and do our homework while we think about what we did. After about twenty minutes though there's some noises in the hall and Mr. Perino leaves class to go see what it was. As soon as he's gone Tori comes over sitting on the desk in front of Harry and leaning over to show him her chest.

"Nice Tori that doesn't make you look desperate at all." I think while I roll my eyes.

"Hi I'm Tori," she says in a flirty voice batting her eyelashes.

"Yeah I know I'm Harry," he replies and Tori smiles wide.

"You've heard of me?" Tori inquires batting her eyelashes a little more.

"Yeah I heard you a real bitch, especially to this beauty and her friends." Harry replies making Tori look shocked and I smile at Harry.

Harry catches my chin and pulls my face down gently quickly kissing my lips. Tori lets out an insulted huff as we pull apart just as Mr. Perino comes back in the room.

"Miss Santamaria what are you doing out of your desk? That's another two days of detention for you!" Mr. Perino says.

Tori gets off the desk and goes back to the one she was sitting in. "But Sir they…" she tries but Mr. Perino isn't having any of her excuses.

"One more word and you'll have detention all next week too." Mr. Perino tells her and Tori shuts up.

I look at Harry and smile feeling myself blush and look back at my homework but for the first time in a long time I feel really good about myself and it's all because of Harry.

Tris's POV

"So what do you think of that Harry dude?" Zig asked me as we waited for Maya to get out of detention.

"I don't trust him. I don't know why exactly there's just something about the guy. He kind of reminds me of some of the guys Owen used to hang around with when he was always in trouble." I explain to him since he wasn't around when Owen use to hang with bad people.

"Ditto I mean since everything that's happened to Maya between Cam committing suicide and her Mom dying I'm afraid shell break soon." Zig said looking worried at me.

"I know. All summer she was always with us and Owen so we knew she wouldn't get depressed. But now meeting Harry I think she's just pushing herself into something that she not ready for." I said back putting my head into my hands.

"Yeah she was pretty down all summer if not for us she would have fallen into depression or worse, her family was sure no help." Zig comments.

"No kidding, Katie couldn't wait to runaway didn't seem to care at all about what it might do to Maya and her dad just started working all the time and I get the feeling when he is home he isn't really there for Maya." I agree.

"Detention lets out in a few minutes lets go wait for Maya and that dude by the stairs." Zig says.

We walk to the front steps and a couple minutes later Maya and that Harry guy come out and the four of us walk to the Dot.

"So how was detention?" I ask just to make conversation and break the silence.

"Tori made a fool of herself and got two more days of detention so not so bad and Harry totally stood up for me it was really sweet." Maya tells us looking at Harry with flirty eyes.

I don't say anything but it makes me nervous that she seems to like him so much so fast.

"Get anything you want guys it's on me." Harry offers when we get into the Dot.

It's a nice gesture but the way he says it kind of reminds me of a used car salesman. We all order and walk to a table, Harry tries to sit by Maya but Zig and I stop him sitting on either side of her. Since Harry's new at the school so we mostly talk about DeGrassi and the kids and teachers, it's all small talk but when Harry tries asking Maya questions about herself she gets real quiet and changes the subject quickly.

"Well I should get home, see you tomorrow Maya." Harry says when we're done.

"Bye Harry thanks for the coffee," Maya smiles kissing him on the cheek.

Harry waves to me and Zig and walks off.

"Can we walk you home?" Zig asks Maya.

"Sure, thanks guys." She smiles.

"So you like Harry don't you?" I ask after we've been walking a short while in silence.

"I don't know maybe, he's really sweet don't you think? And cute? He totally dissed Tori and stood up for me you have to love that." Maya gushes sounding pretty smitten.

"Just be careful okay? I mean after your mom and Cam maybe you shouldn't be rushing into another relationship." I advise her.

"Tris! I'm not rushing into another relationship we had coffee after school and you two were there!" She snaps back at me.

"I'm just looking out for you Maya; I just don't want you to get hurt." I tell her.

"I know Tris but you don't have to worry, Harry's a nice guy and anyway there's nothing to worry about because all we've done is have coffee and he kissed me quickly in detention." Maya admits to us.

"He kissed you?!" Zig exclaims as we reach Maya's house.

I'm not happy about the kiss either but something else has me distracted right now as I see that her recycling can is full of empty beer cans and bottles.

"Maya what's all this?" I question her.

She gets a really guilty expression on her face. "Oh uh my dad…he's…he's been drinking after work." She admits to us.

"Maya does he do it often?" I asked worried about Maya and wondering if I should call Owen.

"Yeah but its ok I mostly stay in my room." She tries to reassure us.

"Maya why don't you come to dinner tonight?" I asked her wanting to get her away from her.

"Ok sure." Maya said happily like she couldn't wait to get away.

"Maya has your dad ever hit you while he was drinking?" Zig asked the dreaded question I was wondering.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I do not own Degrassi.

Author Note: Here we go with another chapter. Hope you all like it and let me know what you guys think. A big thank you to Halawen for all your help in the beta and co-writing.

Maya's POV

Shoot why did he have to ask that. I really should tell them what's going on but then they'll tell their parents and Mr. and Mrs. Milligan and Ms. Novak will get CPS involved along with police and then I'll really be dead, or have to leave Degrassi.

"No of course not. I'm always upstairs when he drinks, and sometimes he yells but he always passes out after a while." I tell them half and half since he does pass out after a while.

"You would tell us if he did right. If not us Owen right. We all care about you Maya." Tris said looking me straight in the eye making me want to tell them the truth but cant.

"Of course I would." I told him giving them a smile "Now do you want to go in and do some homework?"

"I can't I got to get to work but I'll see you guys later." Zig said nodding to Tris and giving me a hug before leaving.

"How about we go to my house and do it there and you can stay for dinner Mom's making tacos." Tris said making me happy that I didn't have to go in just yet.

"Sounds great let's go." I said linking arms with him and headed towards his house.

The Milligan house was only a couple blocks over but have the time I usually left at night and Tris parents didn't want me to walk at night so Owen usually drove me home, but we still made it there within a few minutes.

"Hi kids how was your first day?" Mrs. Milligan asked as we walked in and seen her sitting on the couch.

"It was good except for Tori starting a fight with Maya and her getting detention." Tris said explaining what happened.

"Oh my. Are you ok dear?" Mrs. Milligan asked worrying and caring, wish I miss sometimes.

"I'm fine Mrs. Milligan." I reassured her.

"Mom we're going to do homework in my room is it okay if Maya stays for dinner?" Tris asked.

"Is your dad working late again Maya?" Mrs. Milligan asked.

"Yeah probably," I replied.

"You know that you're always welcome for dinner here honey, I'll call you both down when dinners ready." Mrs. Milligan says.

I smile at her and follow Tris up to his room, we do homework for a couple of hours and hear his dad come home just as we get called down to dinner. Eating with the Milligan's is always a nice break for me but it's kind of bitter sweet since it also reminds me of how my life used to be. After dinner Mrs. Milligan and Tris drove me home, I could see Dad was home and knew he was probably drinking but I didn't want them to know so I thanked Mrs. Milligan for dinner, hugged Tris and told him I'd see him tomorrow and waved to them before I went inside.

"Where have you been?" Dad asks, he's not yelling but his tone is harsh. He doesn't look away from the TV and I can see he's on his sixth beer.

"Doing homework at Tristan's and I stayed for dinner Dad." I reply.

"Next time leave a note." Dad tells me getting up to get another beer.

"Okay sorry Dad I'm going to go shower and get ready for bed." I say and quickly run upstairs.

I go into the bathroom, take a quick shower then get out and brush my teeth, as I'm changing for bed I hear Dad call up the stairs to me.

"MAYA GET DOWN HERE!" He yells.

I don't want to go down, I know he's going to hurt me so I run over to try and lock my door but I guess Dad was already part way up the stairs because he throws open my door and grabs my arm hard yanking me out into the hallway and shoving me against the wall. I hit with such force that it knocks down a picture and I whimper from the impact as the wind is knocked out of me.

"Where's my beer? You haven't been drinking my beer have you?" Dad slurs while also managing to sound menacing.

"Dad I hate beer and I haven't been home since this morning if you let me go I'll help you look." I plead with him through my tears.

Dad releases me and shoves me toward the stairs, I run down to the fridge to see he's already consumed every last beer in there so I go out to the garage while he's still stumbling down the stairs. To my relief I find another six pack in the garage, I bring it out setting it on the table, run past my dad to my room and slam the door shut locking it tight and putting my desk chair in front of it. Getting into my bed deep under my covers and curling into a fetal position I cry myself to sleep.

My sleep, as is the norm recently, disturbed by nightmares. First one about my Dad and then as always the one where I relive the day my mom died. I wake up crying and I wake up early which is fine with me because it means I can slip out before Dad wakes up. I get dressed, grab my backpack and leave the house figuring I'll eat breakfast at the Dot. When I reach the Dot Clare is at the counter placing an order.

"Hey Clare, you hear from Eli yet?" I ask her since I know from Adam that Eli went away to NYU and Clare misses him.

"Hi Maya, yeah I did he calls every night. He really loves NYU and his classes. He'll be back for thanksgiving though and my mom said I could go down for a long weekend at Halloween." She tells me.

When we both have coffee and pastries we sit down and talk some more then walk to school together when we're done.

"It must be nice still having Jake home," I remark thinking about how it would be nice to have Katie in all this chaos.

Jake graduated but he goes to community college part time and works with his dad part time. When Mom started getting real sick Katie broke up with Jake and pushed him away which I thought was dumb on her part.

"Honestly he's beginning to drive me crazy! I've been spending a lot of time at Adam's just to get away from him." Clare admits to me.

"Yeah but if you weren't around all the time Drew would be driving me crazy, being student council president is giving him more of an ego and I didn't think that was possible." Adam comments suddenly appearing between us and putting an arm around each of our shoulders.

Clare and I both laugh at his comment when another voice makes us jump.

"Hey!" Drew gripes smacking his brother upside the head. "Me and my inflated ego are going to steal our VP for the student council meeting." Drew says taking Clare's hand and pulling her away quickly.

"Yeah well we have band practice anyway." Adam calls after them.

After Mo and Imogen graduated we kept Whisper Hug going with Mo's permission of course. Now we had Jenna on rhythm guitar and Becky on keyboard. Adam loved having his girlfriend in the band and I thought it was so sweet how they beamed every time they looked at each other. I hoped one day I'd have what they had. Everyone else was already in the music room and we got straight to practice. Rehearsing for an hour before it was time to pack up before the music class came in. Jenna and Becky left first skipping out together since they both had first period together. As I was packing up my cello someone suddenly looked under the back of my shirt and I whirled around to see it was Adam.

"Maya you have a giant bruise on your back what the heck happened?" He asks.

I have to think fast because I know Zig's already suspicious. "Oh it was dumb, I slipped in the tub yesterday while taking a shower well I have to get to my locker and get a book before class, see you guys later." I say quickly stashing my cello in the corner where Miss Oh lets me keep it and running out.

Adam's POV

It was weird that Maya just ran out. Now I'm worried that she is in danger and hiding it. I know she's going through some stuff with Katie leaving and her mom dying. At least that's what I think after Owen told Drew and me one day what's been going on during the summer.

"She's hiding something?" I said to myself not realizing someone was standing next to me at my locker.

"What's going on bro?" Drew asked looking at me weirs but with worry.

"I'm just worried about Maya. When we were packing up I saw a huge bruise on her back and she told me she tripped in the tub." I said explaining to him what I saw.

"Well maybe she did." Drew trying to reassure me.

"But she so jumpy and ran out of the room." I told him as I closed my locker and headed off to first period which we had together.

"Well then just ask Zig and Tris if they know anything. I mean those two and Owen spent all summer with her, maybe they know what's been going on." Drew said as we headed into the classroom and found seats.

"Yeah I'll definitely do that thanks." I told him as the class got quiet and the teacher began to talk.

Throughout class I couldn't get the worry of Maya out of my head and it too possible to concentrate. The bell ringing knocked me out of my worries singling class was over and time to go to the next one.

I made my way to the classroom that held the Social Studies and saw that it was a combined class seeing my amazing girlfriend and her brother. Luckily Zig is in the class too so I can talk to him about Maya who just so happened to walk in behind me. This will be tricky to talk to Zig about her but it has to be done.

"Hey guys! Hey Baby." I greet them all and kiss Becky hello before sitting in the empty seat by Zig so were basically in a circle of Luke, Maya, Zig, Me and Becky.

"Hey I didn't know you were in this class?" Becky asked as everyone else greeted me along with Maya dodging me looking at her.

"Yeah I had to switch some classes around so now I'm in here." I tell her just as the teacher started class ending our conversation.

The teacher basically talked about stuff that I didn't listen about but should have and handed out our assignments and told us we could work in groups.

"You two want to partner up? Maya and Becky said they would work together." Zig asked Luke and me which we both agreed to.

"Yeah sure." Luke said as we turned our desks around so we were facing each other and began our work.

While working on the assignment and helping the other guys figure answers I still couldn't get Maya out of my head and figure I might as well as Zig now since Maya was sitting the other way on the side.

"Hey Zig I'm worried about Maya, she's been different since her mom died and she has a huge bruise on her back." I tell him.

"Me and Tris are worried too, her dad's been drinking when he is home. She swears to us that her dad isn't hitting her but she doesn't want to spend much time at home." Zig replies.

"Well have you talked to her?" I ask him.

"We try but she always changes the subject or just keeps swearing that everything is okay." Zig informs me.

"Despite her assurances I'm sure it's not but I doubt demanding she talk to us is going to work to well. Let's just keep a close eye on her." I say and Zig nods.

"What you guys talking about?" Luke asked reminding us that he was there.

"Maya." Zig and I replied in unison.

"Oh, did she do something bad or screw up in band or something?" Luke asks.

"No we're just worried about her," I reply.

"What's wrong with her then?" Luke asked with a concerned voice.

"We don't know she won't tell anyone and she's got a bruise on her wrist and a big one on her back." I tell him what I saw.

"And her dad's been drinking too, Tris and I saw a lot of beer bottles in the garbage when we took her home." Zig continued from me.

Before Luke could say something we got interrupted by the teacher who spotted that we weren't working.

"Something interesting to tell the class boys?" The teacher asked us.

"No Sir." We replied in unison and stopped talking till the end of class.

When class ended Luke looked back to see Maya and Becky leaving so he started talking to us about the worry of her.

"Then go to the one person who might get her to tell us what's been going on." Luke said as we gathered our stuff and left the room.

"Who? Katie?" I asked thinking of the older Matlin.

"Heck no not her, she's hardly kept any contact with Maya since she left from what Owen told me." Luke said as we made our way to our lockers along with Zig.

"Then who?" Zig asked.

"Owen. Call him and tell him what you guys are worried about." Luke said then nodded in a bye and headed off to his next class.

"That's actually a good idea. Maybe he could get Maya to tell him everything since they actually grew closer over the summer." Zig said turning to me.

"Yeah good idea, talk to Tris and see what he thinks of it." I agreed with him and waited for a nod then headed to my next class.

Maya's POV

I spent time with Tris in the resource room looking on the computer at just random things. Time went by to quickly and it was time for lunch so Tris and I made our way to the lunch room to get some lunch then grab a table near the doors.

Zig showed up with his lunch and we just began talking on how classes were going when we heard another voice from behind us.

"Well doesn't this look like a cozy spot, mind if I join?" Tori asked from behind Zig with a smirk on her face.

Before any of us could talk someone else did the talking for us as they walked up to our table.

"I do think they mind, nobody wants a spoiled brat sitting with them. Why don't you go sit at the wanna be bitch table in the corner." Adam told her as him Becky and Luke walked up to us and pointed at the table in the far corner where as they get called snobby people sat.

"Then what are they doing here?" Tori said pointing at Luke and Becky.

"They're our friends. You would have known that if you didn't become a bitch and ditch us all summer." Tris said before standing up and shooing Tori away then sitting back down.

After Tori was gone we all sat and ate our lunches talking about random things when another voice popped up behind us startling us.

"Well that was defiantly an interesting interaction." Harry said looking at me and saying hi to Tris and Zig.

"Oh yeah so much fun." I told him sarcastically causing him to laugh a little.

"So what do you want Harry?" Tris blurted out knocking me out of my trance of the boy.

"I actually came to talk to Maya. I want to talk to her privately." Harry said holding his hand out to help me up.

"I don't think that's a good idea." Zig tried saying before I cut him off as I see him and Adam and Tris share a look.

"No its ok I'll be back in a few." I said getting up.

As I followed Harry out I heard Luke asking who that was. As I followed Harry outside to the picnic table I was wondering and worrying what he wanted.

"What did you want to talk about?" I asked as I sat down across from him at the table.

"I am kind of nervous so that is why I wanted to talk to you alone, but I was wondering will you go out with me tomorrow night." Harry asked

Oh my god he asked me out I haven't really gone out with anyone since Cam but he is really cute and the only boy who has noticed me.

"Yes I would love to go out with you." I answered him with a smile.

"Great I say meet me at the Dot around 6." Harry said telling me the plans.

"See you there." I tell him before he stands and kisses me on the check and walks back into the school.

I sit there for a few minutes trying to realize what just happened. After calming down I made my way back into the school and went back up to my friends who were all chatting and quieted down when I sat back down.

"What you so happy about Maya? What did Harry want?" Becky asked me curiously.

"He asked me to go out with him tomorrow night and I said yes." I told them excitedly.

"WHAT!" Tris and Zig said loudly.

"Who's Harry?" Adam, Becky and Luke asked almost at the same time.

"He's a very nice and cute boy that asked me out," I reply.

"I don't trust him," says Zig.

"Zig you hardly know him," I retort.

"Neither do you and I don't think you should go out with him," Tris speaks up.

"I don't think you should either in fact I forbid it." Zig states and I glare at him angrily.

"Excuse me? You can't forbid me from going out with someone Zig. I like Harry and I'm going out with him." I say with determination as I get up from the table.

"Maya's right she can choose who she wants to go out with, it's up to her dad to decide whether or not to let her go out with someone not you guys." Becky says in my defense.

"Thank you Becky," I say linking my arm with hers as we all leave the lunchroom.

"Maybe we should meet this guy first." Luke says.

"Tris and Zig already have met him." I point out.

"Yeah and we don't like him," Zig replies.

"He goes to our school if you guys really are determined to meet him then you can find him." Becky points out.

"Talk to him if you want but don't even think about threatening him or telling him he can't go out with me." I tell them firmly.

"We're just looking out for you Maya, since Katie's gone and so is Owen." Tris tells me.

"I know that Tris but that doesn't mean you can dictate who I can go out with." I reply.

"Without Owen here it kind of does," Tris responds.

"Owen never told me who I could and couldn't go out with!" I say my voice rising a little.

"No one asked you out over the summer. You dealt with a lot this summer Maya we just don't think you should go out with the first boy that smiles at you." Zig says.

"He was not the first boy that smiled at me, you guys are being ridiculous!" I tell them in a frustrated tone turning to talk to them and nearly bumping into Drew and Clare as they come out of student council office.

"What's wrong?" Clare asks.

"They're trying to tell me I can't go out with someone," I tell her.

"Why?" Clare questions.

"We don't like the guy," Zig replies.

"That doesn't mean you can tell Maya who she can and can't go out with. My parents didn't like Eli for a long time." Clare tells them.

"You know they had a point he went crazy and crashed his car," Drew speaks up putting his arm around Clare's shoulders.

She grimaces and elbows Drew a little hard. "We didn't know he was bipolar then. What exactly don't you like about the guy?" Clare asks Zig.

"Well he…it's just…he doesn't…" Zig stumbles over his words unable to come up with anything specific they don't like about him.

"He gives off a swarmy vibe," Tris finally says.

"A swarmy vibe? That's it? For heaven's sake Tristan your brother gave off a swarmy vibe for the first two years I knew him. You of all people should know that just because you think someone is a jerk doesn't mean they are." Clare argues.

"Yeah but sometimes it does," Luke replies.

"We just think she shouldn't go out with him," Zig says.

"Luke and I haven't met him yet so we haven't formed an opinion." Adam tells her.

Clare gives Adam a look, he gives her a look back, it's like they're having some kind of telepathic conversation the rest of us are being kept out of. They exchange another look until Drew tickles Clare's ribs and she jumps a little.

"I hate when you two do that," he complains.

Clare shoots a look back at Drew before looking at our group again. "Maya is her own person and she can make her own decisions about who she wants to date. If you guys are that worried about it then meet him first, express your concerns but you can't stop her from going out with him." Clare tells them. All the guys start arguing at once and Clare holds up her hands to silence them. "You have to let Maya make these decisions, we learn from our mistakes. I'm not saying don't look out for her, we'll all do that but try and dictate what she can do and you'll just push her away." Clare advises.

"Thank you Clare," I smile at the older girl.

"When are you going out with Harry?" Clare asks me.

"Tomorrow night at the Dot around six," I reply.

"Alright then anyone that wants to meet Harry be at the Dot tomorrow around six. I'll be there too and you can all express your concerns and ask him questions since you're all concerned. I'll be there to make sure you guys don't go crazy on the kid. Is that fair?" Clare asks.

"Sounds fair to me," I smile. I'm actually kind of glad that they'll all be there to do what my dad should be doing and checking out my dates. I'm not worried about Harry at all but it is still nice to know this many people care.

"Yeah that's fair I guess," Tris nods.

"That's fair," Zig says somewhat reluctantly and the others agree.

"Thanks Clare I'm glad someone is level headed enough to think." I say as the bell rings.

"No problem Maya," Clare smiles.

We split up to go to class, Drew, Clare, Adam, Luke and Becky going one way and Tris, Zig and I headed in the other. The subject of my date is dropped for the time being, at least Tris and Zig don't bring it up again but I find my mind thinking about it all through class. I'm actually really looking forward to a night out and having some fun.

Zig's POV

School was finally over for the day and Tris and I were at our lockers getting our things together and Maya just left to go home even though we both tried to get her to come with us to get some food.

"Hey while in Social Studies Adam and me and Luke were talking about how worried we were about Maya and we think we might have away to find out about what's going on." I tell him closing my locker and putting my backpack on my shoulder.

"Really how?" Tris said to closing his locker and doing the same before we started making our way to the doors to leave.

"We call Owen and tell him about our worry of her about her dad and this Harry creep." I say as we exit out the doors and head in the direction.

Tris didn't talk the whole way to the Dot so I think he was thinking if we should call his big brother or not. But when we made it to the restaurant and saw it packed inside and made our way to the counter and seen Clare talking to one of the guys behind the counter.

"So I think you're right we should call him. I mean they have become better friends over summer and he's protective and has better judgment just by their voice." Tris tells me as we stopped at the counter and catching the Dot guy and Clare's attention.

"What are you guys up to now?" Clare asked us curiously.

"We are going to call Owen and ask his opinion on everything and tell him about our worry about Maya." Tris explains to her.

"Guys you need to let Maya make her own choices." Clare said firmly.

"But were worried about her, wouldn't your friends worry about you if what you went through what she did this summer?" I ask her curiously.

"Yeah your right especially this one right here." Clare replied finally understanding and nodding to the Dot guy.

"He your brother or something?" I ask looking back and forth at them.

"No I use to date her older sister but I do consider her as a little sister. I'm Peter by the way." Peter said explain to us.

"Oh I'm Zig and this is Tris." I wave to Tris answering for the both of us.

"Zig let's just order our food as take out its too loud and crowded in here to call Owen." Tris said making me look around and see how crowed it got real quick.

"Good idea." I tell him and then we put our order in with Peter and chat with Clare until our food boxes were brought out "Thanks." Both of us say and pay.

"No problem." Peter said.

With that we made our way to the Milligan house which was only a few blocks also from the Dot and made our way inside and up to Tris' room so that if his parents came home they wouldn't hear what we were talking about.

"Hey Tris what's up?" Owen said when he answered.

"Hey I'm here with Zig, we're calling because we're concerned about Maya." I told him.

"Why what's wrong with her?" Owen asked.

"Her dad's been drinking a lot she swears he's not hurting her or anything and she stays in her room but we're still worried." I tell him.

"What do you mean you think she's getting hit?" Owen exploded into protectiveness.

"She's got a bruise on her wrist and Adam said he saw a big one on her back when she bent over. We think there's more but she won't tell us." I tell him then Tris takes after me "And she agreed to go on this date with this guy who knocked her down yesterday. He creeps us our bro. He reminds me of that one guy you use to hang out with Fitz."

"She agreed to go out with who?" Owen asked loudly.

"Yeah and she acting like its nothing." Tris said.

"And you guys are right to be worried, but what can I do I'm three hours away." Owen said.

"To see if you could take a shot at getting her to admit something, hell I don't even like that she went home already her dad could be there." I tell him what she did.

"I'll call you guys back. I got a certain person to chat with." Was all we heard before the sound of a click.

Maya's POV

I was doing homework in my bedroom when my cell phone rang, Owen's name was on the display so I answered.

"Hi Owen, I know I didn't miss another phone call so what's up?" I asked.

"Why the hell didn't you tell me your dad was drinking?" Owen demands.

"Tristan called you didn't he?" I ask.

"That's not the point you should have told me your dad was drinking! Is he hurting you? Tris and Zig said you had bruises!" Owen says in a slightly angry but very worried voice.

Well crap now what do I do? Owen's three hours away but if I tell him then I just know he'll hop in the car and race down here. He'll probably come straight here and get into with my dad or worse he'll call the cops. Either way my dad will be arrested and I'll be sent away to some foster home or something, away from my friends. I already lost my mom and my sister for all intensive purposes as she barely calls, I can't lose my dad and my friends too.

"He drinks but it isn't bad, what Tris and Zig saw it was several weeks' worth of bottles, Dad forgets to take them out to the curb sometimes. He doesn't hit me, the bruises or just from me being clumsy. The house is sort of messy and I trip sometimes." I reply keeping my voice steady and firm so he won't know that I'm lying.

"I heard there was a really big one on your back you get that by tripping too?" Owen questions.

"I slipped in the shower; I'll have to pick up a nonslip mat." I reply holding to the story I told Adam.

There's a minute of silence but I know he's still there because I can hear his breaths, slightly frustrated and angry breaths.

"Okay what about this guy you said you'd go out with?" Owen asks his tone has a different edge to it now still angry but something else I can't quite place.

"His name is Harry and he's a nice guy. He's really sweet; he completely ignored Tori to talk to me. We're meeting at the Dot around six tomorrow but you don't have to worry Tris, Zig, Luke, Becky, Adam, Drew and Clare are all going to be there to meet him and ask him questions. It was Clare's idea because Tris and the guys were trying to forbid me from even going out with him." I assure Owen.

"Are you sure you're ready to go out with this guy?" Owen questions.

"What's that supposed to mean? It's not like he's the first guy I went out with I dated Cam last year remember?" I snap back in an aggravation. Why are all the guys so set on me not dating?

"You went through a lot last year, this summer, your dad's drinking I'm just saying maybe it's not the best time for a boyfriend." Owen tells me.

"He's not my boyfriend it's one date in a public place and before we do anything everyone one is going to meet him and grill him like my parents should be doing! I know I went through a lot in the last few months so don't you think I deserve some fun now?" I question.

Owen sighs and then becomes silent again. "Just be careful," he stipulates.

"I will," I respond.

"Good I'll be calling Tris and Drew tomorrow to find out how it went." Owen tells me.

"Yeah I'm sure you will, I should go I have a pile of homework still." I tell him.

"Yeah call me after this date," he sounds like says the words through clenched teeth, "goodnight Maya."

"Goodnight Owen."

I hang up and get back to my homework both excited about my date tomorrow and wondering how long I can keep fooling people about what's going on at home.


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I do not own Degrassi. If so Owen and Maya would be around each other a whole lot more.

Author Note: here we are with a new chapter. Sorry it took so long but real life got in its way. A big thank you to Halawen for co-writing and betaing. Let me know what you guys think.

Maya's POV

I was sitting at the table eating breakfast when Dad came down stairs; he gets some coffee and goes into the fridge for milk.

"We're out of milk you need to go to the store," dad tells me.

"I'll go in the morning," I reply.

"You'll go now," dad says in a firm voice.

"I can't go now dad I have school." I remind him.

"IF I TELL YOU TO GO TO THE FUCKING STORE THEN YOU GO TO THE FUCKING STORE!" Dad yells at me.

I freeze while he's yelling and as soon as he stops I get up rinsing my cereal bowl and putting in the dishwasher. Grabbing my backpack and heading for the door hoping to get out before my dad keeps yelling but I'm not so lucky.

"THIS INSOLENCE OF YOURS IS GOING TO STOP! YOU'RE NOT DOING YOUR PART AROUND HERE! STOP AND LISTEN TO ME WHEN I'M TALKING TO YOU!" Dad yells and I freeze but just for a minute.

"Dad I have to go to school," I insist and run out the door.

"MAYA GET BACK HERE!" Dad yells after me but I ignore him and run all the way to school.

When I reached the school I only saw some kids roaming around before school started but I didn't really want to talk to anyone so I went over to the picnic table and sat by myself and tried to stop crying so that none of my friends would question what was wrong. I was by myself for a few more minutes when a voice in front of me knocked me out of my thoughts of what my dad said this morning.

"What's a beautiful girl like you sitting by yourself and with such a sad face on?" Harry said to me announcing his arrival and making me laugh a little.

"It's nothing really. Just really missing my sister that's' all. I tell him having to lie not wanting to talk about my dad and I am missing Katie who never picks up my calls.

"Well then your sister's nuts for leaving you." Harry said grabbing my hand and squeezing it.

"I know. So what are we doing tonight for our date after the whole interrogation thing at the Dot?" I ask him curious.

"That's for me to know and you to find out later." Harry said sneakily then up and leaving me in wonder.

I was in so much wonder I didn't hear Tris and Zig walk up to me and try and talk to me.

"Maya!" Zig said knocking me out of my trance and snapping my head up at them.

"What?" I asked curious.

"It's time to head in." Tris said causing me to stand and head in with them.

"So why were you in such a daze anyway?" Zig asked as we walked into the school.

"Oh Harry and I were talking and I tried to get him to tell me what we were doing tonight, but he wouldn't tell me." I said as we reached the lockers.

"I still think you shouldn't go out with him." Zig said getting me irritated.

"And I told you I'm fine and I will go out with him tonight. And that I will call you guys and Owen as soon as I get home." I replied back angrily slamming my locker door and walking away with them calling for me as I head to first.

Throughout the day between Clare and Becky talking to me about my date and all the boys trying to talk me out of it and just annoying me. I made it to the end of the day and went to the front of the school to meet up with Harry to walk together to the Dot.

"Hey sorry if you were waiting long the teacher took forever to let us leave." Harry said walking up to me.

"It's cool. You ready to head out." I ask.

"Of course. Let the night begin." He said sarcastically and enthusiastically and we began walking to the Dot.

It was a quite walk to the Dot and by the time we made it neither of us spoke. When I reached the door I could see everyone already there and at a couple of tables pushed together.

"Hey guys." I said as we walked in and headed towards them. "Guys this is Harry, you know Zig and Tris, that's Adam he's in Whisper Hug with me and Zig, his girlfriend Becky, her brother Luke and you probably recognize our student council President and VP Drew and Clare." I make the introductions.

"It's nice to meet you guys," Harry says as we sit down at the table with them.

"Yeah so Harry where do you live and where are you taking Maya tonight?" Zig questions.

"Just two blocks that way on Blackburn and I'm surprising her for our date," Harry replies.

The guys all give him a look while Clare and Becky both say how romantic it is.

"What do your parents do?" Luke questions.

"Any siblings?" Tris asks at almost the exact same time.

"A brother he's four years older and goes to Centennial Community College, he still lives at home. My dad's a manager at Sobey's and my mom's a secretary at a real estate company." Harry answers.

"How many girls have you dated before Maya?" Zig asks.

"Zig!" I scold him and look at Harry. "You don't have to answer that." I tell Harry.

"No it's okay I've only had one girlfriend before Maya over the summer, summer fling I guess you could say but she didn't mean nearly as much to me as Maya does already." Harry replies.

"Aww," Clare and Becky said together getting them slight glares from Adam and Drew.

"Are you a virgin?" Drew asks.

"Drew that's none of your business!" I snap at him and Clare elbows him.

"Yes I'm still a virgin," Harry answers taking my hand under the table.

"How far have you gone?" Luke asks.

"Luke!" I exclaim with an annoyed tone. "You don't have to answer that it's none of their business." I tell Harry.

"It's okay Maya they're just concerned don't be mad at them. I've only gone as far as first second base with that girl over the summer. I would never pressure Maya into doing anything she wasn't ready for." Harry assures them and kisses my hand.

I blush and smile, I never thought a single touch could make me feel so good.

"Okay he's answered all of your questions, more than I think he should have and we have a date to get to so Tris I will call you later when I get home. Come on Harry." I insist pulling his hand.

We wave goodbye to the others and leave the café to start our date.

Tristan's POV

Maya and Harry had just left and I looked at the others, all of us sitting silently.

"I still don't trust him," I'm the first to break the silence.

"I don't either," Zig agrees with me.

"How do you not trust him, he was a perfect gentleman." Clare says.

"Yeah he was very sweet," Becky agrees with her.

"He reminds me of Fitz, I don't trust him." I reply.

"Fuck he does remind me of Fitz!" Drew agrees with me.

"I knew he reminded me of someone it's Fitz," Adam says.

Becky, Luke and Zig never met Fitz but Clare, Adam and Drew all knew him.

"How in the world does he remind you guys of Fitz? He asked Maya out he didn't threaten the people she cares about to get her to go out with him. He didn't tell us he was going to have sex with her. He hasn't damaged anyone's car, beaten anyone up, pulled a knife, cyber stalked anyone or shown up at their house in the rain to hide out." Clare says and we're all looking at her.

"When was Fitz at your house?" Drew asks.

"Later Drew," she replies.

"He's not outright mean like Fitz but he I don't know just seems kind of sleazy like Fitz." Adam says.

"I didn't think Harry was sleazy at all and Fitz wasn't sleazy he was just…" Clare is saying when Drew cuts her off.

"How can you say he wasn't sleazy Clare? He knew you were dating Eli and still threatened to beat him up if you didn't go to Vegas Night with him. Then he told Eli he was going to have sex with you! And when was he at your house?" Drew questions her.

While they continue arguing about how good or bad Fitz was my phone rings and its Owen so I answer.

"Hey bro," I say into the phone.

"Hey is Maya still there?" Owen asks.

"No she just left with Harry but we interrogated him and he answered all our questions but a little too well if you know what I mean. Now he reminds me even more of Fitz. Zig, Luke, Adam and Drew agree with me but Clare and Becky think Harry was a perfect gentleman. Actually Clare doesn't think Harry is anything like Fitz and she doesn't seem to remember Fitz being that bad." I tell Owen.

"She what? Put me on speaker." Owen says so I put him on speaker and set the phone on the table. Clare seems to be defending the fact that Fitz just showed up at her house in the rain one day to Drew and Adam.

"CLARE!" Owen says loudly through the phone.

Clare jumps a little, goes silent and looks around. "Yes Owen?" She says with slight apprehension in her voice.

"Fitz was a bad guy; he never had a pure thought in his head especially about you and I should know because he shared most of them with me. Everything Fitz did, even if it seemed nice was usually a ploy to get to you. Fitz was a creep, he still is a creep. Now the rest of you what did you think of Harry?" Owen asks.

"I thought he was very sweet," Becky says.

"I agree with Becky he was a gentleman and he answered everyone's questions very well." Clare remarks.

"Yeah too well like he's hiding something or has rehearsed a well-practiced lie." Adam comments.

"I agree with Adam, the kid seemed nice but too nice. Like he was telling us what we wanted to hear and not the truth," Luke says.

"You should know Luke you've used that tactic plenty of times," Becky chides him.

"I just think the guy is sleazy, I never knew this Fitz guy but Harry just gives me a bad vibe." Zig says.

"And you guys let her go out with him?" Owen asks.

"Owen we're not Maya's parents we're her friends we can't stop her from going on a date with a guy she likes." Clare reprimands him.

"If a guy like that asked you out I wouldn't let you go out with him." Drew says.

"I would say no anyway because I have a boyfriend at NYU remember?" She reminds Drew.

"I don't really like it but if we tried to stop her she just would have gone out with him anyway you know how stubborn Maya can be. She promised to call me when she got home and I'll make sure she calls you after." I tell my brother.

"Good I gotta go," Owen says.

"Bye Owen," we all say at once and Owen hangs up.

Maya's POV

"I am so sorry about that. I had no idea they were going to ask those kind of questions." I ramble a quick apology as we left the Dot.

"It's ok they're your friend's and they care about your safety." Harry said stopping at a crosswalk and turned to look at me.

"I know but some of them are mostly my sister's friends or Owen's I've only been friends with since summer." I tell him about some of them.

"Who's Owen?" Harry asks grabbing my hand and we start walking to where I guess our date will be.

"Owen is Tris' older brother. He's just protective and we actually became friends over summer since he was there along with Tris when my mom died and Katie just up and lefty without a word." I explain to him.

After telling him that it was quiet again, like Harry didn't like what I told him or something. But I followed along with him for the blocks that we walked. I noticed along the way the farther we got the scarier the neighborhoods started to look. I knew it was a bad idea not to continue bit I didn't want Harry to think I was scared to be down here at night, especially after all the times Owen and some of his friends told me and Tris to stay away from around here.

"Are we going the right way?" I ask little nervous at where we were.

"Yes actually we are at our date destination. And don't worry I'll be ok." Harry said putting his arm around me and waved to a house that was playing loud music and had people everywhere great, our first date was a party on the wrong side of the tracks.

The house was small and packed with kids making the inside stuffy and hot. I could smell alcohol and marijuana and lots of kids were dancing around wildly. I felt very nervous and way out of place in this crowd, without realizing it I grabbed the back of Harry's shirt. He looked at me smiled and kissed me softly and I calmed down a little.

"This crowd looks a little rough," I have to sort of yell to be heard over the music.

"Don't worry I'll protect you," Harry says holding me a little closer.

We walk through the party a little pushing our way through the kids to a card table with a punch bowl and plastic cups but there was also beer. I get a plastic cup and fill it with the red punch taking a sip and then realizing it's full of alcohol causing me to spit it back into the cup.

"Is there something that doesn't have alcohol?" I ask into Harry's ear.

"There's probably some sodas in the fridge, come on I'll get you one." Harry says taking my hand and pulling me through the party to the kitchen.

He opens the fridge and gets out a can of soda handing it to me, we walk back to the drink table and he takes a beer.

"You're drinking?" I question.

"Don't worry I do it all the time, besides I'm not driving don't worry I'll only have a couple. Let's go outside where the music isn't so loud." Harry suggests over the music and I nod.

Putting his arm around me again he takes me outside, the patio of whose ever house we're at has a sofa an old one. Harry walks over to two kids that look a little older than us, they're both girls chatting away, honestly it reminds me of the way Katie and Marisol used to gossip.

"We want to sit there move," Harry says in a firm voice but the girls just sit there and blink at him. "I said MOVE!" He barks at them and now the girls move jumping out of their seats.

Harry smiles at me, we sit down, he puts his arm around me even tighter than before and we start sipping our drinks. We sit for a few minutes just watching the crowd and then a couple of guys come over one sits on the arm of the sofa next to me the other one leans on a post of the covered patio.

"Harry buddy you made it, who's the chick?" Asks the one sitting on the arm of the sofa.

"Hey Jason, Chip this is Maya and she's my girl so hands off." Harry tells them.

"Cool, nice to meet you, I'm Charles but everyone calls me chip and that's Jason. So how do know Harry?" Chip who's leaning against the post asks me.

"We go to DeGrassi together; Maya's in a few of my classes and in my opinion the hottest girl at that school." Harry says and I find myself smiling and blushing.

Chip and Jason hang out by us a while longer, talking to Harry mostly. When Harry and I finish our drinks we walk around and mingle a bit but I only know Harry. He does introduce me to a few people but they all become a bit of a blur after an hour of names and faces.

The rest of the party was ok except for all the creeps leering at me and Harry staying by me but talking mostly to some guys. It was near 1030 when I realized I needed to head home soon. Even though I dought my dad would notice.

"Harry I need to head home before my dad notices." I tell him knocking him out of a conversation with some guys.

"Alright I'll walk you home." He says smiling, and a little buzzed, before saying bye and grabbing my hand and we head out the door. It was quite again for a few blocks past the wrong side of the tracks until Harry started talking.

"So what happened to your Mom?" Harry asked something I didn't really want to talk about.

"It something that I'm not ready to talk about along with the rest of my family. All I'm saying fort now is that she died before the end of the last school year." I say trying to hold back tears at the thought of my now screwed up family.

"Ok but I am here to listen if you need to talk." He says sweetly as we got closer to the street I lived on.

"Ok thank you." I tell him as we walked down the street to my house and stop at the front door.

"I had a good time tonight." I say to him looking up at him.

"So you know you're my girl now right." Harry says shocking me.

"I am." Blushing at the thought of it. All I got in response is Harry's lips meeting mine and kissing for a minute.

"I'll see you tomorrow." Harry said after the kiss was over and backed away.

"Yeah maybe." I said then opened the door, went in, closed it quietly and leaned against it in amazement. I looked around and into the living seeing Dad was passed out in his chair with beer bottles around him. Not wanting to wake him at all I quietly snuck up the stairs to my room and closed it quietly and went to my bed to call Tris.

"Maya how was it?" Tris asked anxiously when he answered.

"It was good. The date was a party at one house." I tell him.

"Wow what a first date" Tris said sarcastically.

"I know but he was right by my side the whole time." I tell him a little as I suddenly heard noises from downstairs and quickly went to my door to lock it in hopes Dad didn't come to it.

"Well that's good I guess." Tris said before pounding was heard as Dad made his presence known "Maya what is that?"

"It's just my Dad." I say a little scared as Dad starts yelling.

"You ungrateful brat where are you! I know you took it I want it back." Dad started yelling more and more shaking the handle more.

"Maya! What is going on?" Tris yelled into the phone since he can hear the pounding.

"He's must of drank all the beer and is accusing me taking it." I said calmly.

"Maya get over here, I think you better stay here." Tris said in a frantic voice.

"No Tris its fine I'm ok. My door is locked." I say just as Dad starts yelling again.

"Your worthless, it should have been you not your mother." Dad drunkenly says.

"No its not get over here now or I will call Owen and get him down here and go get you." Tris said sternly causing me to start throwing clothes in a bag cause I didn't want Owen or anyone to see what was going on behind closed doors.

"Fine I'll be there in a few." I tell him hanging up and zipping my bag, throwing it over my shoulder and open the window and start climbing out it as Dad still banging on the door.

Tristan's POV

After hanging up with Maya I was really worried, I hadn't heard what her dad was yelling through the door but I could hear him banging loudly and knew that he sounded pissed. I had told Owen I'd call him anyway but now I had a new reason to call him.

"Hey you hear from Maya yet?" Owen asks when he picks up the phone.

"Yeah she said Harry took her to a party and it was fine," I tell him quickly, "but when she was on the phone with me her dad was banging on her door and yelling loudly. She tried to tell me it was fine but I told her she needed to get over here. She's on her way right now." I tell Owen and it's one of the few times my usually mouthy brother is silent.

"What the fuck was he yelling?" Owen asks after a couple of minutes.

"I don't know I couldn't really hear through the door but Maya said he drank all the beer and thought she took it." I reply.

"Does that happen a lot?" Owen asks.

"I don't know, she told us he drinks and he yells but that she stays in her room and locks the door." I inform him as I hear the doorbell. "That must be Maya; thank god her house is just a block from ours." I say as I run downstairs to open the door. "Are you okay?" I ask Maya as I pull her into the house and hug her at the same time.

"Let me talk to her," Owen insists as I lock our front door again.

I hand Maya the phone and she takes it while I write a note for Mom and Dad that Maya is staying over since they're out right now. Maya follows me so I hear her part of the conversation.

"Hello…hi Owen…no not that often…no never…he was just really drunk…yes I'll stay tomorrow night too…the date was fine and Harry was a perfect gentleman…I know…okay bye." Maya says hanging up the phone as we head up my room.

"So you're really okay? Is your dad like that a lot?" I ask Maya as we sit on my bed.

"Like I told Owen he doesn't do that often only when he's super drunk but he still made me promise to stay here tomorrow night too, so I hope that's okay?" Maya asks.

"Of course it's okay silly, so you going to tell me every detail about the date now?" I ask her.

"Uh how about we watch a movie or two and go to bed," she suggests.

I shrug and pick out a movie to put on, then go downstairs to microwave some popcorn and we lie on my bed to watch the movie.

Maya's POV

Tristan and I woke up about ten smelling hot pancakes and maple syrup. We yawned and stretched before getting up and running downstairs for breakfast.

"Morning kids it's nice to see you Maya," Heather says as she gives us each a plate of pancakes.

"Thanks for the pancakes I love your pancakes. Tris said it would be okay if I stayed tomorrow night too." I comment as we start eating.

"Oh of course Maya you know you're welcome anytime you don't ever have to ask. I feel like we hardly saw, you Tris or any of your friends in weeks. We should have a BBQ today, you kids can invite your friends, and we'll invite a couple of the neighbors and our friends." Heather says excitedly.

"Uh we will?" James asks looking at Heather.

"Yes we will. We can go shopping for it right after breakfast, I'll call our friends while you drive and the kids can call theirs," she replies.

As soon as Tris and I are done with breakfast we go up to his room to start calling people. Three hours later the Milligan's backyard is full of people including Clare, Adam, Drew, Becky, Luke, Zig and Jenna. There were a bunch of adults too, a few of them were neighbors others were friends of James and Heather. The men were grouped around the BBQ, the women sipping tea in the lawn furniture and us kids were sitting or standing on the lawn eating chips and drinking soda. I had asked Tris last night not to say anything about my dad being drunk last night to anyone including his parents and so far he'd kept his word.

"So how was your date last night?" Clare asks me and everyone else looks at me.

It hadn't escaped my attention that Clare had seemed to be avoiding both Drew and Adam since she got here, which was odd for her.

"My date was good; we went to a party and Harry stayed by my side the whole time. He was very sweet and walked me home kissing me at the door." I inform them.

"Aww how sweet," Becky says while Jenna and Clare nod in agreement.

"I still don't like him," Zig remarks.

"You guys are hopeless, Maya had a nice date and you still don't trust him?" Clare scolds him.

"He took her to a party at some house for their first date that doesn't sound questionable to you?" Tris shoots back.

"Lots of people go to parties for their first date; she said he stayed with her the whole time." Clare retorts. "I'm gonna go get a drink," Clare says standing up.

"So what was the party like?" Jenna asks me as Drew gets up mumbling something about needing another drink.

"Uh it was interesting, I only knew Harry but I met a few of his friends from his old school. The people were nice and like I said before Harry was sweet." I inform them as I see Drew take Clare by the hand and pull her into the house, she seems slightly unwilling to go but no one else seems to notice as they're all looking at me.

"Well he sounds nice to me and just what you need after Cam. So I wrote some new lyrics and I was hoping you'd help me write the music Maya." Jenna says changing the subject and I smile at her gratefully.

She and I start talking about music with Becky and Zig while Adam, Tris and Luke are having their own conversation.

"Kids foods ready come and eat," Heather calls.

"Anyone seen my brother or Clare?" Adam asks.

"Yeah they went inside I'll get them," I say standing up.

"They're probably talking about student council stuff." Adam remarks.

I go into the house looking for Clare and Drew but don't see them. I do however hear muffled voices coming from the downstairs bathroom. I go over to knock on the door but stop when I hear what they're saying.

"No Drew we can't!" Clare snaps, she sounds slightly frustrated and angry but also on the verge of tears.

"Why not?" He questions.

"You know very well why not!" Clare replies.

"But…" Drew starts.

"No Drew we…" Clare is saying when she opens the door and stops when she sees me and stops.

"Uh hey the foods ready and you guys should come and eat." I tell them and see that Clare has tears in the corner of her eyes.

"Yeah I'll be right out I just need to freshen up," Clare says.

"There's another bathroom upstairs Clare," I tell her when Drew isn't leaving that one.

"Thanks," she says and walks quickly upstairs.

I look at Drew a few seconds and then follow Clare, knocking softly on the bathroom door.

"It's me are you okay?" I ask her through the door and she opens it.

"Not really, I did something I'm not proud of but I liked it and now I have to lie about it and hide it. You ever keep a big secret from everyone you care about?" She asks.

I feel a lump in my throat and swallow it. "Yeah I know exactly what that's like." I nod.

Clare sighs leaning against the counter. "The worst part is I feel like I should talk to my older sister about this because I really can't talk to anyone else about it." She tells me.

"I didn't even know you had an older sister." I reply completely taken aback.

"Yeah well few people do because I kind of don't anymore. That is she ran off to Africa three years ago and I only hear from her twice a year now, my birthday and Christmas. And it really sucks because times like this I need her and I can't talk to her." Clare says.

"Yeah I know the feeling, Katie left the second she graduated. She's only called or e-mailed a few times since then and every time I call her she doesn't pick up and now I need my older sister more than ever." I tell her.

Clare starts laughing a little and I look at her wondering what part of this is funny. "Sorry I was just thinking how alike we are, we both have big secrets, we both need our older sisters right now and both our sisters have abandoned us. Well if they're going to ignore us then I saw we don't need them, we make a vow right now you and me are now like sisters and we can go to each other when we feel like we need Katie and Darcy." Clare says holding her hand out to me.

I smile and shake her hand. "I agree and you're right we don't need them."

"Clare," Drew's voice from the doorway makes us look over.

"Drew please just pretend it never happened!" Clare pleads getting upset again.

"I'm not going to pretend we never kissed," Drew replies.

Drew apparently sucks at keeping secrets but I'm still shocked at his admission.

"We didn't just kiss Drew we made out! We made out and we both liked it! You're engaged and I have a boyfriend." Clare says.

"Yeah but we both liked it you can't deny it." Drew responds.

"Yes I liked it that's the problem, we're supposed to work together all year how can we do that now? I can't be here, I'm going home." Clare tells us pushing past Drew but he catches her wrist.

"Let me take you home," Drew offers.

"No Drew I…"

Clare gets cut off when Drew smashes their lips together. I watch as Clare relaxes, her body sort of melts into his, her arms going around his neck and her eyes closing. They seem to be kissing with a lot of passion; I definitely never saw her kiss Eli that way. I only saw Drew and Bianca kiss a couple of times but it was nothing like this. I start to feel uncomfortable watching them but they don't break apart, a minute ticks into two and their lips are still intertwined.

"Okay so I'm going to go tell everyone that Clare isn't feeling well and Drew is taking care of you." I say walking out of the bathroom and then pushing them past the doorway. "If you two are going to keep doing that you might want privacy." I remark closing the bathroom door.

I smile as I walk back outside, I don't know what's going to happen with those two but I think they're cute. I also feel good knowing I have someone I can turn to, someone I can talk with since Katie seems to have decided she doesn't want to be an older sister anymore.


End file.
